Workshop 1

Workshop 1 - Approach of this workshop are to expose participants to the basic angle of shot for food styling. Participants will be shown on how to style  salad and chips from the three angle of shot, which are the eyes level, 45 degree and 90 degree perspective. One thing that need to be understood in presenting a food for a camera is that camera will only present food in a 2 dimension perspective. So, with that in mind a stylist need to put more attention in styling a food from the camera perspective. What happening beyond the camera perspective is not the consent of the viewer. Stylist need also understand that not all dish are suitable to be presented from the 3 angle of shots. For instance a slice of a layered cake is suitable to be presented from eyes level and 45 degree perspective, while a bowl of soup should be presented either from 45 degree or a 90 degree perspective. Understand the perspective of the angle of shot that suitable for certain dishes help stylist to present food in the most appropriate manner. Below are some photos of salads and chips that were presented in the three angle of shot:

IT ALL ABOUT PASTA PRESENTATION

Preparing Roasted Chicken.

Introduction

A good, fresh looking chicken will always be the most vital aspect of this task. As mentioned earlier the first styling tasks are to look for the best ingredients available you can find. If it have to take you to wake in the early hour of the day to find this ‘actor’ by all means you have to do it. It is not impossible here in Malaysia for us to look for freshly slaughtered and carefully dressed chicken. So what you need for this task:

1. Fresh and carefully dressed, proportionate chicken.

2. Aluminum foil.

3. Panting brushes.

4. Thread – strong and thin (fine)

5. Pins / needles.

6. For coloring – caramel. Thick and thin soy sauce, oyster sauce, brown sugar syrup and oil.

7. Roasting pan.

8. Freshly selected vegetables

9. Sauce (optional)

10. Props and tools - crockery, utensils etc

Steps one:

Clean and dressed chicken carefully. Make sure there are no tiny hairs or any bruises. Stuff the chicken with aluminum foil and push up the breast upward. Use fine and strong sewing thread for trussing. If thick or butcher twine are used it with create a roasting mark onto the chicken. Position the chicken as how you want it to be. Pin both wings to it body using needles. Be careful with the wings if it turns dark during the roasting process cover it with aluminum foil.

Thick and thin soy sauce, oyster sauce and honey is used to paint the chicken for a roasting effect,

 Preparing the vegetables for the roasted chicken.

 The chicken is stuffed with aluminum foil this allow to better shaped the chicken.

 A pin or needles are used to secure the opening to make the roasted chicken more presentable.

 Trussing the chicken using a strong but thin sewing thread.

Before applying a paint on the chicken, baste it with hot boiling water.

When the chicken is ready, baste it with hot boiling water. This is to make the skin to be slightly cooked. This will allow it to be painted if not the color may not stick to the skin.Using the combination of the color that are available in the kitchen such as caramel, thick and thin soya sauce and oyster sauce, you may paint the chicken to resemble a fully cooked roasted chicken. A fully cooked roasted chicken may not look appetizing in a photograph – it may shrink in the process of roasting. The process of painting the chicken may take a few steps. You have to apply the color layer by layer, alternately by putting the chicken in a pre-heat oven of 200 degree C, 2 – 3 minutes at each time.

Once you feel that you get the right color that you want, untied the chicken, and paint it where the thread may leave a visible mark. Prepare a plate or casserole depending on how you want to present your roast chicken. Arrange it and visualize on how you want it to appear in a photograph. Be careful of the chicken jus and dripping it may wet you plate so you need to be fast. Before that you got to prepare the accompaniment – vegetables, starches and sauce where appropriate.

Question that always asked...............

I have always been asked similar questions every time when I told someone that I teach Food Styling at my university. ‘What is that all about?’ “What is Food Styling?’, ‘What really Food Styling do?’ and ‘Who is this Food Stylist?’. I guess this is due to the fact that Food Styling is totally an ‘alien’ subject for most Malaysian. They might not aware that how much they are been exposed to this food styling element almost everyday in their life. The TV that they watched, the poster and billboard that they stumbled on their way to work, or even food pictures and advertisement that they always encountered when reading newspaper or magazines, all of that are full with Food Styling element. Not to mentioned the menu card that they referred to order their meal. And all that are full lots of Food Styling elements.

As mentioned earlier in my posting Food Styling is an art of preparing and presenting food for the camera. It the works to make food look good and appetizing that will stimulates ones urging for it. So the work of food stylist is to create food and dishes that appear in magazines, cookbooks, advertisements, food packaging, television commercials, and sometimes even feature films. Using behind the scenes magic and culinary artistry, a food stylist is responsible for making food look exciting, enticing, and effortlessly prepared – in essence, seducing the viewer. The food stylist brings to a photograph a creative eye, expertise in food preparation, and artistic interpretation of the black-and-white words of recipe (Lou Manna, 2005).
What is need for a good food stylist? To be a good food stylist ones need to be ready to the challenges and endurances the trade demanded. Here are some attributes that are needed to be a good food stylist (Custer, 2010).
• Well organized
• A good cook and good baker
• A problem
• A good team player
• Someone who knows when to lead and when to take direction
• Confident
• Able to deal with stress
• Patience and tolerant
• Personable
• Professional
• Creative and artistic
• Physically healthy
• Able to see the humor
• Versatile
• Off course you must not be color blind! (me)

Food Stylist normally work free lance, they may be working based on assignment and task given to them. Food related company and even those company that might not have anything to do with food sometimes anggaged their service. Most of their work can be found in printed media such as magazines, nespaper, catalog, brochure and cookbook. Apart from that they also provides services for advertising, packaging and labelling. Below where you may find Food Stylist works:

•Editorial - Cookbooks, magazines
•Public relations – Newspaper, magazine, promotional material, recipe development
•Marketing – catalogs for food/equipments, Mini cookbooks, contests, point of purchase displays.
•Advertising – Ads, Commercials, Posters, Billboards, banners.
•Packaging – Food, equipment.
•TV and Film – Commercials, TV shows, movies, Training videos, Food shows, Cooking shows.

Crispy Flour Mix

Crispy Flour Mix - CrispyMix made out from mixture of OKRA Flour. The benefit of this CrispyMix - it will make your fry stay crispy for a long time at room temperature. INSYAALLAH this innovation will be competing at the IID2010, UiTM coming January 2010.

CRISPYMIX - CRISPY AND SPICY OKRA FLOUR MIXTURE

Introduction
Most flour mixture in the market is based from wheat flour and there is a downside to this. The price of wheat flour fluctuates according to the production and the laws of supply and demand. Our country does not produce wheat flour to meet the local needs and this commodity has to be imported. When the market price of wheat flour increased due to whatever reasons, the local food industries which are dependent on imported wheat flour will be affected. They will have to raise the price of to wheat flour-based food items to absorb the extra cost and this increase will be passed on to the consumers. If the consumers are unwilling to compromise with the price increase and reduce or outright boycott the consumption of these food items, then the industry players will indiscriminately suffer losses.

In view of this scenario, an alternative to wheat-based flour could be produced. One such idea is the production of a flour mixture using Okra. Apart from reducing the over-dependency on wheat flour, we can give Okra some added value as to its usefulness. Okra
or popularly known in Malaysia as Lady Finger or in Malay known as ‘bendi’ can be easily found in South East Asia especially in countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines. Okra consists of 90% water, 7% carbohydrate, 2% protein, 1% fiber and traces of minerals and vitamins, such as Vitamin B. It is rich in calcium and known as a source of pectin. Traditionally, it is believed that Okra can help to boost-up memory.

Okra-flour mixture is suitable for everybody. This invention will give Okra more versatility as a food item. It’s extended usage than just a mere vegetable will give okra a promising future and will help to stabilize this vegetable price in the market.


Product Advantages
· This product is a vegetable based flour mixture that is suitable for every one of all ages.

· It has an extra crispy effect on both shallow and deep-fried products and is highly suitable for seafood, chicken and vegetables. Long lasting crispy effect compared to any other flour mixture.
· Okra is inexpensive and is easily available all-year round.
· The best part of this product is the old, left-overs and tough Okras which have no
· market value as vegetables are used in the production of the flour whilst the fresh younger ones can be saved as vegetables.
· This definitely creates an added value for okras which are presently only used as vegetable in cooking, hence enhances it’s versatility in terms of it’s usage.

Novelty
The novelty of this product is the use of inexpensive (cheap) and unwanted or leftover vegetables which currently have no value in the market. The process of transforming okra into flour for CrispyMix used tough, unwanted and leftover okra that are not suitable for vegetable cooking. Presently these vegetables (tough, unwanted or leftover Okra) are thrown away.


Significant
The significance of this product is apart from adding the value of the okra in terms of it’s usage and versatility, utilizing the unwanted leftover Okra which currently has no market value, can help boost farmer’s income by selling a product which is previously destined to the garbage bag.

NOTE:

INTERESTED TO COMMERCIALIZE THIS PRODUCT - CONTACT 019-6649369

One Sauce............

During the IID 2009 Ivention, Innovation and Design) competition held at UiTM 12 - 15th January this year, I sent 4 products:

1. Okra Thickening agent.

2. Okra Snack

3. Oriental Sauce - one sauce that suit all purpose of cooking, and

4. Blue Peas Jazzy Drink

Okra Thickening Agent, Okra Snack ann Oriental Sauce has won me a gold medal. While bronze for the Blue Peas Jazzy drink. Okra Snack and Oriental Sauce were then entered the ITEC'2009 competition on 15 - 17th May 2009, unfortunately it does not won any medal - probably, enrolled in a wrong category. But it is a great experience for me as it was my first attempt participating in national level - invention competition.

What I want to share with all of you is about the Oriental Sauce that I invented. The thing that spark the idea to invent the product is the word 'convenience'. One sauce that suit for all purpose of cooking. Either marinating, stirfrying, barbequing, grilling broiling, steaming or dipping - you can get it all from this sauce or should I rename it "ONE SAUCE" - it is an authentic original secret recipe made out of vegetables, meaning it is suitable for everyone - even non vegetable lover might be tempted to try. A taste and sensory survey have been done - 50%rated it as good , 16% very good and 5% rated as excellent for it taste. And I myself believed that this product can go very fat in the market. So....................................

For those investor who would like to commercialize this product, please contact me we can further discuss it.

The Okra Flour

Here are a write up on the product that won me a gold medal at the Bio Malaysia 2009, Kuala Lumpur Convention Center 17 -19th November recently.

ABSTRACT
Okra or popularly known in Malaysia as “Bendi” or Lady Finger can be easily found in South East Asia especially in Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Philippine. Okra consisted 90% water, 7% carbohydrate, 2% protein and 1% fiber, traces of minerals and vitamins, such as Vitamin B. It is also rich in calcium. While traditionally Okra is also believed to boost-up memory.
Vegetable commodities are considered as the most volatile commodity in term of pricing. It price fluctuate almost daily. In Malaysia Okra may fetch the highest price of RM415.00/100kg and as low as RM214.00/100kg (FAMAXCHANGE – price forecast for month of January, February and March, 2008)). However, these fresh commodities are greatly influenced by weather, apart from other factors such as demand and supply. Due to this aspect, farmers need to play more roles to ensure the price stability of this particular commodity. One of the roles that farmers could play is to explore the other potential usage of that commodity, aside from it conventional and traditional purposes.
Commonly, young Okra is used as a source of vegetables in most of Asian cooking. While old and tough okra normally are discard or thrown away. This creates great losses to farmer since these old and tough Okra has no value in the market. Due to that aspect a solution are found to explore the potential of this old and tough Okra for better usage. Since Okra has a distinctive thickening value it have found out that the possibility of converting Okra into a powder form and used as an thickening agents. And at the same time the Okra flour can also be turned into snack.
PRODUCT ADVANTAGES
Snack which are made from vegetable based flour suitable for everybody of all age.
Use inexpensive and easily available raw material throughout the year (unseasonal vegetable) – okra.
Creating versatility for okra uses.
An added value for okra which are presently only used as vegetable in cooking.
NOVELTY
Using inexpensive (cheap) and unwanted or leftover vegetable which currently have no value in the market. The process of transforming okra into flour for Okra Snack used tough, unwanted and leftover okra that are not suitable for vegetable cooking. Presently these vegetables (tough, unwanted or leftover okra) are thrown away.
SIGNIFICANT
Help to boost income of farmers. Utilizing the unwanted leftover okra which currently has no market value, helps to boost farmer income.

NOTE:

Those interested to know more about the OKRA Flour please contact me at 019-6649369

It have been..............

Pheeew .............just couldn’t find time to really sit down and write (or probably I am giving myself an excuse). November seem to be a busy month for me, right from the start of the week. Busy with the examination, marking paper, research outing as well as competition – Bio-Malaysia (my product OKRA flour have been choosen to enter this competition – it won a gold medal at the IDD2009, UiTM, 17th - 19th November 2009). Know what, our research outing organized by the Academic of Sciences Malaysia (ASM) have been a very interesting one. Dr Salim (my colleague) and me are looking into the Orang Asli cuisine – so we quickly agreed when we got an invitation from MSA for the Gunong Benom Expedition 2009. A lot of interesting things happened – Cooking the Orang Asli style really different, the ingredient, method, flavouring, and taste. I have taken quite a number of picture – will share with you later. Okay got to chow now will keep update, INSYAALLAH soon.